choporifico

Hey guys,

Me and my partner are currently wait listed for upgrades from a coach seat (k) to business first on the following flight:

Flight: CO117
Operated by United Airlines.
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200ER
Fare Class: Economy (K)

Depart:
3:25 p.m.
Fri., Mar. 16, 2012
New York/Newark, NJ (EWR - Liberty)

Arrive:
7:25 p.m. +1 Day
Sat., Mar. 17, 2012
Hong Kong (HKG)

There are currently over 24 business first seats available. I was not able to upgrade on the website since I kept getting an error. I called the 800 number and the csr informed me that there were no seats available and that she would put us on the wait list to be upgraded.

The cost for the upgrade is 30k miles plus $600. I dont mind paying for a little extra comfort on such a long flight. Plus, I have an obscene amount of continental miles.

From your experience, what are the chances that the upgrade will go through?

Your feedback would help tons. Thanks guys.

UA-NYC

Impossible to know without knowing your status.

choporifico

non-elite...this is actually my first united/continental flight...

100countrygoal

I'm sorry to say, but I believe the chance of you being able to upgrade is very, very small. Hopefully I'm wrong.

LarkSFO

If you don't mind my asking... How did you accumulate an obscene amount of CO miles if this is your first united/continental flight?

If you really have a lot of miles, there are standard awards available for 150,000 miles per person (one way) for your flight. Probably more than I would want to spend...

choporifico

I think I went a little overboard when I said obscene, I'll change it to a decent amount lol. My partner and I signed up for the 50k cc bonus awhile back and we put a good chunk of last years business spend on the continental one pass card (to rack up some miles for a future trip to BKK and SIN)

Back in november we started planning a trip to HKG and TYO, and we really lucked out. For some strange reason we snagged the the coach fare for a whopping $1041 including taxes (still cant believe it to this day). Instead of spending the miles on the HKG/TYO trip we decided to save the miles for our future trip.

The upcoming flight is:

EWR-HKG
HKG-TYO
KIX-JFK

mduell

Hopefully that's on ANA.

choporifico

i hope so...i logged into my onepass account just now and they have already deducted 30k and I see a pending charge of $600 on my card...

terminalc

When you wait list you get hit for the miles & fees.

Friday is not a good day for upgrade and not having status aggravates your chances. Don't expect an upgrade notification before 2 days out. When I buy Y on this flight & upgrade I only occasionally get upgraded before 2~3 days out (but I've never missed one!)

Good luck. You never know when someone may miss their flight & you get their seat at the gate!

zrs70

Did an agent tell you this, or are you counting seats on the map? Keep in mind that C passengers may not yet have selected their seats though they are confirmed in the cabin!

choporifico

Yes. The csr was very nice actually, according to her there were about 24 business first seats available. Im assuming since the flight is more than a month out...they are waiting for more people to actually shell out $4000+ for a business first seat.

FlyerChrisK

If you do have an absurd number of miles, consider booking an award next time rather than upgrading a revenue ticket? If you can find award inventory, you'll know at booking that you'll be in business class and you'll have a lot lower cash outlay.

zigenbock

It is a month away and difficult to tell what will happen, but it does appear that there is still plenty of seats - so keep your fingers crossed - I wouldn't be as negative as some of the others.

af fp

For the record: my friend just cleared at 7 days. Of course at this time of the year business traffic must have slowed down.